1. Field of the Invention
The specification relates to a tactile belt system for providing navigation guidance. In particular, the specification relates to a tactile belt system that guides a visually-impaired person using a vibrating tactile belt.
2. Description of the Background Art
Human-machine interactions are dominated by audiovisual interfaces for consumer electronics with good reason: the information delivered to the user is very rich. In contrast, haptic interfaces provide less detailed information. However, haptic interfaces are sometimes more suitable for certain applications. For instance, a visual or audio interface might impose too much cognitive load for a driver assistance system. Moreover, visually impaired people do not have access to visual information and they usually reserve their hearing for monitoring their environment. For the blind and the elderly, even basic navigation skills become a challenge.
There has been research on information encoding via haptic interactions that is interpretable by humans. One way to implement haptic interactions is to stimulate the skin by using microactuators such as vibration motors found in cellphones.
Vibrotactile devices are used in a broad range of applications including waypoint navigation and facilitating navigation for people with reduced visual capacity. The intended application of a vibrotactile display device influences its design and form factor as they can be in the form of handheld devices, jewelry, shoe wear, wearable devices and a combination thereof. However, these devices provide limited information because of their size and design.